Touch the Sky
by brainandheart
Summary: Non-chronological one-shots all about the Air Family. Pemzin, naturally.
1. Honorable

Honorable

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Half an hour after sunset and Pema had managed to get three of her children to bed. She'd had to rock a fussy Rohan, tell two bedtime stories (the first didn't have enough action for Meelo), and promise Ikki that they could go and visit Blueberry Spicehead the next day, but still, it was practically a record. Now she was in search of the fourth, who surprisingly was neither reading in the sitting room nor playing Pai Sho with her uncle. After checking all throughout the temple's living quarters, Pema finally found her eldest daughter with Tenzin in the courtyard.

Jinora and her father sat together on the steps, poring over one of Tenzin's journals of Avatar Aang's adventures by the light of a lantern. Pema hung back to watch the pair. She fell in love with Tenzin all over again whenever she saw him like this with their children. It seemed like everything he did, he did for others. For his family, for Korra, for Republic City. Even with Meelo the day before, he'd only wanted to help, though the results had been more than he'd bargained for. She could not ask for a better father for her children, and she just wished that he could see that more often.

Over on the steps, Tenzin was nearly hunched over, bending his tall frame to his daughter's level. Though Pema couldn't make out what he was saying, she could hear the tone of his voice, low and warm and strong as he pointed to something on the page. Jinora listened with rapt attention, soaking up every last bit of information.

With a fair bit of reluctance at interrupting such a moment, Pema cleared her throat, and father and daughter swung around to face her. Even though Jinora took after Pema's own parents more, in that moment she could clearly see Tenzin in the young girl's eager, intelligent eyes. "Jinora, it's time for bed, sweetheart."

"But Mom, I only have twenty pages left," Jinora pleaded.

Pema looked to Tenzin but realized he would be no help tonight, delighted as he was with his daughter's love for history, and Pema had to admit it seemed counterproductive to suppress Jinora's desire to learn. She folded her arms, but her smile ruined the stern posture. "All right, you can finish the book, but only if you go and get ready for bed now."

"Thanks, Mom!" Jinora beamed, hugging her father tightly before running to her mother to do the same. As their daughter disappeared inside, Pema made her way to the steps and sat beside her husband.

"So," she raised an eyebrow at him, "Ikki told me she wants to see the baby bison tomorrow. She thought you'd like to go with her."

He chuckled. "You know, I really would."

The lines of his face were relaxed, and she knew he was content. Watching him, she felt a rush of love for this silly, stubborn, uptight, wonderful man. Placing her hands on his cheeks, she drew his head down and kissed him firmly. When she pulled away, she couldn't hold back a laugh. Even in the dim light of the lantern she could see his reddened cheeks. Fifty-one years old and he could still flush like a boy.

"What was that for?"

Pema shrugged, a smile tugging at her lips. "I love you."

His face softened. "I love you, too."

A mischievous light entered his eyes then, and he leaned forward to capture her lips again, his arms encircling her and pulling her flush against him. For a moment Pema allowed herself to revel in her husband's warm embrace before reluctantly breaking away.

"Wait," she began apologetically, placing a hand against his chest. "I told Ikki and Meelo you'd be in to say goodnight."

He retreated a few inches as well, clearing his throat. "Right. I'll—I'd better go do that."

As he stood and turned to leave, she caught his hand. Her thumb brushed along the blue arrow on the back of it. "But after…"

He smiled broadly at her unspoken promise, his gray-blue eyes a bit darker than usual. "I'll be there."


	2. Rest

**Rest**

"Mommy? Daddy?"

Tenzin jolted awake. With bleary eyes he peered across the room to make out the diminutive figure in the doorway. "Jinora?"

At the sound of her name, the five year old skipped into the room and took an airbending-enhanced leap onto the bed. Tenzin sat up in time to catch her in his arms, and she burrowed further into his embrace. Pema sat up beside him, one hand on her rounded abdomen, looking as bemused as he felt.

Maybe it was because he had just woken up, but his mind could not fathom why Jinora was here, as awake as if it were morning, when he could see from a quick glance at the window that it was still a long time in coming.

"Sweetie, what are you doing up?" Pema brushed a hand through her daughter's hair. "It's long past your bedtime."

Jinora gave a little sigh. "But 'm not tired."

Tenzin shared a look with Pema. Jinora had never had trouble sleeping before. "Why can't you sleep? Did you have a nightmare?"

The little girl shrugged. "No, 'm just not sleepy."

Tenzin scraped a hand down his face. "All right, well, come on, let's let Mommy sleep."

Pema drowsily squeezed his hand in thanks, already easing back into the bed. He scooped up his daughter and made his way across the room, his joints popping and cracking in protest. Back in her own room, Jinora jumped out of his arms onto the bed and scooted up against the headboard, waiting expectantly. Tenzin sank down to sit beside her with a sigh.

"Now, what would help you sleep?" At his curt tone, the smile dropped from her face and she ducked her head. Despite his exhaustion, Tenzin felt a stab of guilt.

"A story?" Her voice was nearly inaudible. From his vantage point, he could only see the top of her head and her little hands fiddling with her blankets.

He made a conscious effort to soften his voice when he spoke again. "What story would you like to hear?"

"The one where Gran-Gran and Great-Uncle Sokka find Grandpa Aang in the iceberg?"

His heart melted at her enthusiasm, and he smiled, weary though it was. "Ah, that's a good one."

And so he stayed, telling story after story, until she finally drifted off. By that time, the sky had lightened considerably, and he knew sunrise was less than an hour away. He would get no more rest that night, but as he watched Jinora sleep so peacefully, he figured he could do without it just this once.

However, that wasn't the end of it. Jinora came to them the next night, and the next, and the next, until more than a week had passed. Tenzin loved his daughter dearly, but the lack of sleep was slowly driving him crazy. He zoned out during council meetings, did things, like little chores or paperwork, that he later didn't remember doing at all, and even found himself nodding off during meditation, something he hadn't done since he was four years old. He knew Pema felt the same way. It had been barely more than a year since Ikki started sleeping through the night, and with another one on the way they needed all the sleep they could get in the meantime. Jinora, on the other hand, never got more than a few hours each night and yet her energy and focus never flagged. Obviously, something was going to have to change.

…

The idea came to him on the tenth day as he rubbed his aching eyes, trying desperately to focus on the meeting going on. It hit him like a flash of lightning and seemed so simple he wondered if it was actually a good idea or if it was a product of his sleep-deprived state that proved he had finally gone insane. He sat through the rest of the meeting with all of the patience of a kid waiting for the end of a school day.

Seeking out Pema the moment he returned to the island, he found her in the kitchen, falling asleep over a steaming pot.

"I know what to do," he said without preamble. She turned to him slowly, dark smudges under her green eyes, and lifted an eyebrow.

"We stop fighting it."

That finally seemed to wake her up. "What?"

"Even with us telling her stories, singing lullabies, anything we can think of, she still barely sleeps. And it hasn't slowed her down at all. But it is slowing _us_ down."

Pema sighed and shifted to tend to the pot on the stove. "I know, but what are we supposed to do?"

"Why does she come to our room every night? Because she can't sleep and she's bored. So far, we've been entertaining her, but we can't keep that up."

She gave a tired and unamused laugh. "What are we supposed to do, then? Ignore her?"

"No, not exactly. If she really doesn't need the sleep, then we don't need to spend all of our time trying to get her to fall asleep." He could see it in her face that she wasn't sold but she wanted to believe that he'd found a solution. Hopefully, his idea would convince her. "Jinora loves stories more than just about anything and she already reads better than kids several years older than she is. Why don't we tell her that if she's not tired, she doesn't have to go to bed? She can read until she feels like sleeping as long as she stays in her room."

Pema looked like she was about to poke holes in his idea, so he rushed to continue. "As soon as there are any negative effects, we can find another solution, but can't we try this? We need rest," he placed his hand on her protruding stomach, "especially with the baby coming soon."

For a moment, he held his breath, waiting and watching as she thought about it. Finally, a small, affectionate smirk tipped her lips. "That's a dirty trick, using the baby against me."

At her implicit agreement, Tenzin felt the almost manic energy that had sustained him since stumbling upon the idea desert him in one fell swoop. He placed an arm around Pema's shoulders. "Let's go talk to Jinora."

…

To Tenzin's relief, Jinora loved the idea. Even though he was the one who had thought of it, he had worried that his daughter would think they were brushing her off, but the little girl found it exciting that she got to stay up late and do what she loved, and that her parents trusted her enough to go to bed when she needed to.

That night Tenzin slept better than he had in a long time.


End file.
